I signed up and paid for a five-week volunteer experience on San Cristobal island in the Galapagos but left after three weeks due to this experience not living up to what was promised. I pursued this opportunity in hopes of obtaining a once in a lifetime gap year experience in a unique destination that would provide ample opportunity for interaction with wildlife, but unfortunately my experience failed to provide that opportunity.When I initially inquired about this volunteer opportunity to Projects Abroad staff, the potential volunteer experiences that I was informed of as stated on their own volunteer website included “Working in the Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre and Otoy Plantation, Invasive Plant Removal, Working in the Plant Nursery, Beach Clean Ups, Sea Lion Surveys, Bird Surveys, Environmental Education Programme, Iguana Monitoring.” Unfortunately, I was only provided the opportunity to work at the tortoise center and conduct invasive plant removal, beach clean ups, and sea lion surveys. We were provided machetes to use to cut the otoy for the tortoises without any guidance on how to properly use them. When removing invasive plants, paid staff used weedwhackers with full protective gear on while volunteers like myself were left with no safety equipment and I was repeatedly hit by flying debris. I only met twice with William Puga, the onsite volunteer coordinator, the first time when I arrived at the airport and then a second time when he was collecting our money for a weekend trip to Isabela that he helped arrange. The most frustrating aspect of this trip was the social isolation I experienced. During initial discussions with Projects Abroad staff, I was told that there would 15 other volunteers there during my dates; however, they failed to mention that it would be a single large group coming the last week of my stay and that there would be no other female volunteers around my age the first three and a half weeks of my stay. This created a socially isolating experience, considering there wasn't much to do in town and the other volunteers I stayed with were men, two of which were over the age of 50. Had the Projects Abroad staff been forthcoming about this detail, I could have adjusted my dates to ensure I would have other volunteers my age there at the same time. When we informed Projects Abroad staff of my decision to leave two weeks early and asked for a refund for the two weeks that I would not be staying, they simply said no refunds and offered no alternatives to try and rectify this miserable experience. It seems the program is only concerned about getting the money out of volunteers rather than truly providing them with a memorable gap year volunteer experience. This is truly disappointing as I worked all summer to save up enough money to pay for this trip and it now feels totally wasted.
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